Red Dead Redemption and Minecraft dominated last night’s Game Developers Choice Awards, taking home seven of the 10 gongs on offer.
Rockstar’s western epic took home four awards – Best Audio, Game Design, Technology, and Game Of The Year – having been nominated for six. Minecraft was named Best Debut Game, Downloadable Game, and won the Innovation award. Mojang’s sandbox debut won every award it was nominated for – not bad for an independent game that’s still in beta.
Accepting Best Debut Game, Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson said: “Being nominated in both the IGF and the GDCA shows just how fast Minecraft has grown. Apparently we are a real game now, so go indies.”
It was a disappointing night for Limbo, however. Playdead’s XBLA hit was the most-nominated game at the ceremony, shortlisted in seven categories, but it only took home one awards, Best Visual Art. Chillingo’s Cut The Rope won best handheld game, and Mass Effect 2 took home the Best Writing award.
Sega’s Yu Suzuki was given the Pioneer award, saying in his acceptance speech that he had “always tried to live every day as a pioneer. So I’d like to say it’s an honour to officially be a pioneer.” The Lifetime Achievement award went to Peter Molyneux, who apologised to former employees for “putting gimmicks in [games] and just being an incredibly difficult person to work with.”
The Game Developers Choice awards, now in their eleventh year, were shortlisted by an open nomation process, with the eventual winners chosen by an invitation-only group of 500 leading developers.
Best Audio: Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games)
Best Debut Game: Minecraft (Mojang)
Best Writing: Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Best Game Design: Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games)
Best Downloadable Game: Minecraft (Mojang)
Best Visual Art: Limbo (Playdead)
Best Technology: Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games)
Best Handheld Game: Cut The Rope (Chillingo)
Innovation Award: Minecraft (Mojang)
Game Of The Year: Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games)